Fun family activities & places to be with our kids in Singapore & beyond (plus the occasional mommy rantings!)

Book trailer #2 and why I wanted to write a story about friendship

Dropping My BFF is an Alien book trailer number 2 and why I wanted to write a story about friendship.

Okay, here is my DIY book trailer #2 for My BFF is an Alien!

Much as My BFF is an Alien is about the adventure a Singaporean girl goes on with her alien BFF, I had really set out to write a story about friendship.

As children become tweens, friends become a much bigger part of their lives and when they become teenagers, friends and friendships are literally the world to them. I've always felt the start of secondary school is one of the hardest phase for children to navigate, what with the increase in subjects to tackle and new people they meet. It is also sadly the age when children can be really mean.

If you've read the interview I did with Epigram Books' blog - Doing the Write Thing - you'll know that Abriana was based on the girl I was when I was 13. Like Abriana, I was insecure and socially awkward when I started secondary school. I, too, started secondary school without a best friend (my best friend from primary six didn't go to the same secondary school), our class was mostly filled with unfamiliar faces and I was often one of those who were left out when we are told to form a group or work in pairs.

Some scenes in the book - like one where Abriana had approached her former BFF to work with her as a pair but her supposed friend walked off to work with another girl instead, and one, where Abriana recounted incidents when the mean girls in her class would look at her then snicker derisively at her - were real incidents that happened to me back then.

I hadn't really thought of these incidents for many years and they only came back when I was writing this book. As an adult, it was easy to brush them off but I recall it did hurt back then. It is human nature to want to belong and this need for a sense of belonging is even more pronounced when you're a tween or teen.

I remember seeking solace in my books and daydreams back then. But now as an adult, I see books as not just there for escapism but they are there to give us hope, inspiration and remind us we are not alone.
While I didn't write a fairy tale, I believe this quote by the inspiring L.R. Knost truly reflects why many children book authors write the stories they write:

“The value of fairy tales lies not in a brief literary escape from reality, but in the gift of hope that goodness truly is more powerful than evil and that even the darkest reality can lead to a Happily Ever After. Do not take that gift of hope lightly. It has the power to conquer despair in the midst of sorrow, to light the darkness in the valleys of life, to whisper “One more time” in the face of failure. Hope is what gives life to dreams, making the fairy tale the reality.”